Share this:

JERUSALEM – The West Bank cease-fire was rattled yesterday after Israeli troops shot and killed a senior Palestinian militant in a raid on a refugee camp.

Israeli officials said they were trying to arrest Ibrahim Hasash, of the terrorist Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and shot him only when they came under gunfire at the camp in Nablus.

Hasash had organized homicide bomb attacks at the direction of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrilla group, they said.

An Al Aqsa official gave conflicting signals, saying the group would respect the truce – but would retaliate “like an earthquake” for Hasash’s death.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the killing a “serious violation” of the cease-fire.

In other Mideast developments yesterday:

* The Israeli military said it would take back arms given to Gaza Strip settlers for self-defense so that they couldn’t be used when soldiers close down the settlements this summer.

* Abbas, under U.S. pressure, announced that he had ordered the more than a dozen security organizations under his authority to be streamlined into three main bodies.

Abbas told U.S. security coordinator William Ward of the reorganization, intended to make the armed Palestinian forces more efficient.

* The U.N. Human Rights Commission, meeting in Geneva, condemned Israel’s settlement of “occupied Palestinian territory,” including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and demanded the government reverse the policy.

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the one-sided resolution brought shame on the United Nations, and noted that Israel plans to withdraw from Gaza and the northern West Bank in a few months.